Google’s Pixel 6 series offers solid hardware and a feature-packed software experience, but it surprisingly misses out on a basic feature that’s quite common on almost all modern smartphones: Face Unlock. However, there’s hope that feature will soon arrive, at least on the Pixel 6 Pro. There’s plenty of evidence to suggest that Google hasn’t entirely given up on Face Unlock and that it may arrive in a future update. A recent report indicated that the feature might go live in the June Pixel Feature Drop. Now, some more evidence has emerged about the Pixel 6 Pro's upcoming Face Unlock feature.

As spotted by YouTuber M Brandon Lee of "This Is Tech Today," Android 13 Beta 1 on the Pixel 6 Pro has added a new Face Unlock setting — the most concrete evidence yet of the feature's existence and imminent arrival. Android 13 Beta 1 adds a user-facing Face Unlock settings page. While it's hidden and not directly accessible to end-users, Mishaal Rahman forced the settings page to show up on his Pixel 6 Pro and shared screenshots showcasing the setup process.

Face Unlock setup screen on a Pixel 6 Pro

Unfortunately, the feature doesn't work at the moment, and you can't set up anything. Interestingly, the Pixel 5 running Android 13 Beta 1 also shows a face unlock reference when you search for "face unlock" in device settings.

Face Unlock reference on a Pixel 5

It's unclear when Google plans to finally roll out the Face Unlock feature to the Pixel 6 Pro. In any case, this lines up nicely with 9to5Google's recent report that the feature is scheduled to arrive with the next Pixel Feature Drop. Since the Pixel 6 Pro doesn't pack special face unlock hardware, it will likely rely on the front-facing camera and machine learning to get the job done.

Source: M.Brandon Lee (via Twitter), Mishaal Rahman